Huamei Meow gracefully walked up to the pile of strangely shaped zombies, each step a perfect display of feline elegance.
"Hogback mentioned a fire-breathing cat… that you, isn't it?"
A zombie that looked like a general from some nation asked her.
"It not," Huamei Meow twirled her sword and calmly replied, "I only know a little swordsmanship, meow."
The moment her words fell, a few sword slashes suddenly appeared across the zombie who had spoken.
"When did that happen?!"
All the zombies were shocked by Huamei Meow ghost-like sword technique.
If Brook weren't currently locked in a fierce battle with the zombie samurai Ryoma, he'd have been equally astonished.
Because those few strikes from Huamei Meow carried the essence of Brook "Nose Song Sonata," but she had seamlessly blended it into her own swordsmanship.
"If Miss Huamei focused solely on swordsmanship, she could definitely become a powerful cutting-type Felyne… what a shame, meow…"
Seijuro Meow shook his head and sighed from the side.
(=`=)Link Meow nodded in agreement.
"Humph-hahaha… impressive swordsmanship! But it useless against us!" The zombie who had been struck swung his halberd down at Huamei Meow.
"We're zombies—you can't kill us with slashes!"
Huamei Meow lightly tapped her feet, her graceful movements dodging the attack, and she swung her sword again at the zombie neck.
The flying slash precisely struck its target, cleanly severing the zombie head—but even that didn't kill him.
The zombie simply picked up his head, placed it back on his neck, and was completely fine again…
It was utterly absurd! Even if losing his head didn't kill him, how could just sticking it back on make him good as new?
If Sherwin hadn't already witnessed countless unreasonable scenes in the One Piece world, he definitely would've shouted out in disbelief right now.
"Humph—hahaha! I told you, your swordsmanship is useless against me!"
The halberd zombie laughed and launched another attack, and the other zombies didn't just stand by—they all moved in on Huamei Meow.
"Are you sure this is okay?" Robin watched Huamei Meow weaving through the horde with concern.
"Should we take some of the enemies off her hands?"
"Don't worry. Huamei can use Observation Haki. Even if she can't beat all these zombies, she can keep herself safe, and besides, we're here watching."
Sherwin wasn't unconcerned—of course he wasn't. In the manga, even Luffy, with a bounty of three hundred million, was overwhelmed and had his shadow taken when surrounded by these general-class zombies.
Huamei Meow having Observation Haki didn't mean she was invulnerable.
But since the little tabby herself said she wanted to use these zombies to awaken her Armament Haki, Sherwin couldn't very well stop his cat ambition.
"Tch—zombies are a real nuisance…" Huamei Meow tried cutting at them a few more times, but it had little effect.
Unlike those hodgepodge soldier-zombies, most of these general zombies were composed of intact bodies of strong fighters only a few were incomplete and patched together by Hogback with other 'materials.' So Huamei Meow couldn't attack their stitching lines the way Link Meow had before.
She didn't lose heart, though—she spun elegantly to dodge another attack.
"Compared to the miasma-emitting Corpse-Dragon, you lot aren't worth watching, meow!"
The little tabby hopped across the zombies with her small, nimble body, guiding them to clash and entangle with one another, and meanwhile she made her way to the halberd zombie shoulder.
"Since cutting off the head doesn't work, let try smashing them to pieces, meow!"
Huamei Meow body crackled with lightning as she gripped Cangming tightly in both paws and thrust it fiercely toward the zombie head.
"Raiden — One Plum Blossom!"
This strike, infused with the spear technique of Elbaf, pierced straight through the halberd zombie skull, blooming into a plum blossom-shaped hole that nearly erased his entire face.
Moments later, the halberd zombie staggered a few times before collapsing to the ground with a heavy thud.
However, Huamei Meow, who leapt down from his body, didn't show the slightest hint of joy. Instead, her brows furrowed deeply…
If the zombies had truly been defeated, the black shadows within them should have escaped—but there wasn't even a trace of a shadow leaving this one body.
Sure enough, after a brief moment, the fallen halberd zombie began to sway again, then shakily stood up.
His face was almost completely destroyed by Huamei Meow thrust, yet he could still make sound.
"Damn it! I can't see! Why is everything so dark?! Damn cat! Get out here!"
Fortunately, he seemed to have lost his sight. As he roared and wildly swung his halberd, he didn't hit Huamei Meow—but several nearby zombies were struck and injured by his rampage instead.
"Stop it, you idiot!"
The other zombies rushed forward and tackled the berserk halberd zombie to the ground.
"What a strange ability, meow…" Huamei Meow murmured, her tail flicking thoughtfully.
Huamei Meow tilted her head slightly, clearly unable to fully understand how these zombies even worked.
However, even though things weren't exactly as she had expected, she had at least found a way to deal with them.
The other zombies weren't stupid either. The reason that halberd zombie had fallen for her trick earlier was because all of them believed that even if they got slashed, it didn't really matter — so they never bothered to dodge Huamei Meow attacks.
But now that they realized she had a method to deal with them, the remaining zombies started consciously protecting their eyes.
And since all they needed to protect were their eyes, they often used other parts of their bodies to block Huamei Meow strikes directly. As a result, several of her next attempts ended in failure.
"Still not enough destructive power, meow."
After having her attacks repeatedly blocked by the zombie bodies, Huamei Meow understood what the key to breaking through was.
Of course, she could have aimed for the zombie joints instead, disabling their movement, but for Huamei Meow, the main purpose of this battle wasn't victory — it was to awaken her true Armament Haki.
If she really wanted to win, she could simply enter demon mode and use her "cutting-class" version of Armament Haki to break through the zombie defenses easily.
"Elbaf Spear — Hakoku Meow!"
This time, Huamei Meow didn't use her modified version of the technique but instead performed Elbaf Spear exactly as the Giants did.
The essence of this move was to gather every ounce of power — including Haki — and release it in one explosive burst.
In fact, only when Haki was released did it count as a true Elbaf Spear. Thus, using this technique was both a method of training and activating her Haki.
However, the Giant techniques weren't really suited for the much smaller-bodied Felynes.
As a result, even though Huamei Meow was expending far more stamina, the damage she dealt was actually weaker than her own self-created move — Thunderstorm: Single Plum Blossom.
"Elbaf Spear — Hakoku Meow!"
"Elbaf Spear — Hakoku Meow!"
"Elbaf Spear — Hakoku Meow!"
Even so, Huamei Meow refused to give up and continued unleashing one Elbaf Spear after another toward the zombies.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Because the technique didn't match her body, Huamei Meow soon found herself panting heavily, while the group of zombies stood nearly unharmed, showing no sign of critical damage.
"To be able to fight us for this long, you've already done quite well,"
said the zombie of the once-famous Captain John as he stepped forward, addressing the now visibly sluggish Huamei Meow.
"Our master will surely grant your shadow to a powerful corpse. Who knows — perhaps we'll even be comrades one day."
"Huff… I'm quite satisfied with my own shadow. I've no intention of giving her a new master, meow,"
Huamei Meow exhaled deeply, her ears pressed down and her fangs bared. "So why don't you all return to your own bodies instead?"
Huamei Meow raised the Longsword, which had just turned pitch-black, and an overwhelming pressure burst forth from her small frame.
Then she swung it in a wide, sweeping arc toward the zombies.
"Gale — Single Plum Blossom!"